POLITICAL WHINE

July 15, 2017

The LCBO chose to remove two wines from the shelves because they were labelled as ‘Products of Israel, when “in fact they came from occupied territories”, alternatively described as the West Bank or Judea & Samaria. The LCBO is the monopoly purchasing alcohol in the Canadian province of Ontario. The wines singled out were made by Shiloh and Psagot wineries.

Only two days later the decision was rescinded, and the Shiloh & Psagot wines were put back on the shelves after consideration of the Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement. Under the agreement, the term Israel related to the area where Israel customs laws are applied.

A couple of years ago the German department store Ka De We made the same decision with regard to the Golan Heights Winery’s wines, before swiftly changing the decision too.